Obedience triggers Keene traffic stop

[srqrebel]

This morning while I was at the laundromat, a NH state trooper made a u-turn on West Street and pulled over a vehicle with current NH registration. The car pulled into the laundromat parking lot with the trooper on his tail. Puke and I were both there, but unfortunately neither of us had a video camera with us at the time

Apparently in NH, when you register a vehicle, you get ten days to get it inspected... in the meantime you get a color coded sticker to place on your windshield until you get the actual inspection done.

I stood nearby and listened to the exchange between the blue-light gangster and his hapless quarry. The only reason this particular gangster made a u-turn and pulled this gentleman over, was the color code of his sticker.

The commuter informed the trooper that he had just gotten the car registered and was still within his ten day grace period. The trooper retorted, "How am I supposed to know that?"

The commuter did not get a bill of extortion from this encouter -- but his time was wasted, not only in terms of the obvious delay to his morning business: He had just gotten the car out of the shop, and the battery was run down. Fortunately, I had a set of jumper cables, and was able to get him on his way again reasonably quickly.

What I want to know, is what is the purpose of that color coded ten-day sticker??? I mean, seriously, think about it.

[Puke]

You don't get a ten day sticker, it was his old sticker from the previous year. That's why the cop pulled him over. There is no way for the pigs to know if you've just registered or not. They just assume you are breaking the law and thus have an excuse to pull someone over.
Luckily this guy had a nice car and looked "respectable". I wonder if the cop would have been so nice to someone with an older car and not wearing a nice leather jacket?

[John Edward Mercier]

The police tell if your inspected by the color and large number in the middle of the sticker, as Puke stated it was outdated. They tell if you've registered from your license plates, the small stickers attached with month on one side and year on the other.
You have until 10 days after purchase to get a vehicle inspected and can get a 25 day paper plate. If on a paper plate that should have given away that the vehicle had just been purchased recently.

[Puke]

The plates were good. 2008 sticker and all that crap.

[srqrebel]

oops... that was a glaring assumption on my part... though I thought the commuter had said that he just got the sticker. Apparently not.

My apologies... I try to make only very careful assumptions, but occasionly I do get careless

[Caleb]

Good thing you apologized. You narrowly averted the ostracism database. 

The Keene cops are obsessive about the registration. I had one end up chasing me for miles, doing several dangerous things because he had seen at a light that my sticker wasn't current. He did a U turn at a light (or maybe there's not a light, I can't remember) but at any rate, he did a u turn while kids were crossing and he ended up getting detained by the kids crossing, which gave me time to get on the highway (I saw what he was doing and was trying to get to work as quickly as possible). Then he raced down the highway at extremely fast speeds, with his lights blaring, but as there was a bicyclist, a car couldn't get over, so he tailgated a car. Then when he caught up to me, there was a line of cars (of which I was a part) that pulled over, but he couldn't squeeze right behind me because there was a car right behind me, so he pulled in behind the car behind me. I waited til he got out of his vehicle and then I pulled away. He raced back to his car, and by the time he caught up to me I was on a private road, about 40 yards from Fedex facility. He didn't give me a ticket or even a warning, (if memory serves, I had just got the car and was within my grace period too) but I thought it was odd how much trouble he had gone to just over that little sticker.

[ny2nh]

The most noticeable stickers right now are the red ones....they were issued in 2006, so if you have a red sticker, you're definitely out of inspection. If yours is white - yet still expired - you might get stopped but it's not as obvious unless you're stopped at a light where they have time to read the month number.

You have 10 days after you register to get the sticker and there is no temp sticker.....

[srqrebel]

The most noticeable stickers right now are the red ones....they were issued in 2006, so if you have a red sticker, you're definitely out of inspection. If yours is white - yet still expired - you might get stopped but it's not as obvious unless you're stopped at a light where they have time to read the month number.

You have 10 days after you register to get the sticker and there is no temp sticker.....

Are you referring to the inspection sticker on the windshield, or the registration sticker on the plate?

I think the inspection sticker in question was sort of a tan color.

[Lloyd Danforth]

Aren't the current inspection sticker 'reddish' this year?

[srqrebel]

Good thing you apologized. You narrowly averted the ostracism database. 

...and you would refuse my business to your own detriment, because you would be hard pressed to secure popular support

[FTL_Ian]

Thank you guys for stopping to watch.  Did the cop say anything to you?

Perhaps it's time we started talking about Keene CopWatch again...

[srqrebel]

Thank you guys for stopping to watch.  Did the cop say anything to you?

No. He did not even appear to notice us. He was too busy treating his quarry like a jackass.

[ny2nh]

The most noticeable stickers right now are the red ones....they were issued in 2006, so if you have a red sticker, you're definitely out of inspection. If yours is white - yet still expired - you might get stopped but it's not as obvious unless you're stopped at a light where they have time to read the month number.

You have 10 days after you register to get the sticker and there is no temp sticker.....

Are you referring to the inspection sticker on the windshield, or the registration sticker on the plate?

I think the inspection sticker in question was sort of a tan color.

The sticker on the window.

Sorry - my bad. The white ones are from the year before....red were issued in 2007 and expire in 2008....the 2008 ones are blue.

[kola]

ya shoulda snuck around and pinned a donut on his antennae.